Despite Red Bull’s dominance in 2023, technical director Pierre Wache believes Sergio Perez’s difficulties mean he still “failed”.
The Mexican finished second in the championship with teammate Max Verstappen. This meant that Red Bull, for the first time, finished a Formula 1 season with its two drivers ahead of all other members of the championship.
But it wasn’t a walk in the park for Perez. For a while, it looked like he was in danger of squandering that second position as he struggled to get into shape. Although he eventually managed to accomplish the task, his inconsistent effects left him with 290 issues by the end of the year.
Verstappen consistently squeezed every single drop of functionality out of the incredibly fast RB19 as Perez struggled to do so. And that’s why Red Bull technical chief Wache is rarely completely happy despite the team’s normal campaign.
“A fast car is a car that allows the driver to give everything,” he told Dutch magazine Formula 1. “We failed in that regard because only one driver, Max, in this case, can take the car well. “.
“It’s Max’s talent, which is controlled to use the car well during the season and in other conditions. On the other hand, we might not have fully understood what Checo needed to get the most out of the RB19.
Wache’s frustration hints that this will be a domain for him and his fellow designers as they continue to work on their 2024 car. If the performance gap between Red Bull and their rivals is narrower at this team, they would possibly want either of their drivers to perform well to effectively protect their title.
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Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff himself has admitted that Verstappen is the only driver on the grid this year who has driven to the best of his abilities consistently. “It’s hard to see that smart drivers in other groups have these oscillations in functionality,” the Austrian said.
“You saw it [in Abu Dhabi] with [Carlos] Sainz and [Charles] Leclerc, you saw it with George [Russell] and Lewis [Hamilton], Oscar [Piastri] and Lando [Norris]. And one of the apparent toppers is Perez and Verstappen. Perez is a moment slower than Max. So what is it? We’ve noticed it rocking back and forth.
“So I think it all depends on the grip of the tyres. If you can get the car in an ideal place, a solid platform to start working on at the start of the weekend, then you can extract performance. “If not, there is simply no performance. You literally fall off the cliff. So I don’t have any explanation for that. I think the only one this year who has figured out how to drive those tires is Max.
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